A Family Reunited
by ElNoNombreHombre
Summary: What happened between MM and MMX? My answer! After taking forever, chapter 2 is now ONLINE!
1. Memories

Disclaimer that doesn't legally mean a thing:

I don't own Mega Man, Mega Man X, Zero, yaddda yadda yadda they are properties of Capcom yadda yadda or other assorted characters that may make a cameo appearance as they are owned by their respective owners yadda yadda PLEASE DON'T SUE ME! I DON'T HAVE ENOUGH MONEY TO MAKE IT WORTH THE TIME, OR COVER THE LAWYER'S FEES!!!

OK. Now that that's over with… lets move on to the next phase.

I assume quite a few things, namely because of several hiatuses (hi ate' tus – noun – a gap in time) in my knowledge of the Mega Man and Mega Man X series. I've only played Mega Man 1-6, Mega Man X 1,2, and 4 only touching on 3, and played Mega Man Soccer. So if I royally screw up something please don't flame me about it.

A few notes:

  
1) **Please, PLEASE** I emplore you, DO NOT use the voice of X in MMX4 for X in the story—Zero is not so bad—but PLEASE (I hope I've made it emphatic enough) use the one that was used in the one episode that X appeared in the short-running series of the same name. This holds true for any voice and character appearance that was used in the series.   
2) X is Mega Man, just "grown up", if you will Any Time spillage into Mega Man X 3 will please be ignored or at least pointed out so I can fix the timetable.   
3) Measurements are in metric unless specified otherwise meaning temperatures are in Celsius   
4) I use the US names for all the characters   
5) If there seems to be a vocabulary problem, I will post a small glossary of all the "big confusing words" used at the beginning of each subsequent (sub sah kwent'- adjective - following)   
6) By the way, the panda is my favorite animal, I couldn't come up with a better idea   


Finally All the garbage is finished… time for what you came here for!

A Family Reunited

Chapter I: Memories

After long last, it was finally over.

"Oh you're gonna' pay for that Mega-wuss!" PandaMan shouted. "BAMBOO SPEARS!"

"Oops! You missed me again!"

Mega Man easily jumped the sharpened bamboo rods. One final powered up Mega-Buster blast was all it took to make PandaMan extinct. Wilie's last defender was gone.

"It's over, come out Wilie!" challenged Mega Man. He knew it wasn't going to make him give up, but he had to say it anyway.

"Never!!!" came the deranged reply. A spidery-looking Mech fell from the ceiling of the lab down to the ground, in an attempt to smash the blue bomber, naturally, Willie was the pilot.

A barrage of energy shots was fired at our hero, followed up with a couple jabs from the menacing-looking legs of the Mech. Mega Man dodged them all, meanwhile trying every weapon he had acquired and shooting at various places, to no avail.

'MWAHAHAHAHA!!!!" came the maniacal laugh of Wilie, "There's no way you'll beat me now!" Wilie took a couple more swings with the Mech's arms

Contrary to Wilie's belief, it was at that moment Mega Man noticed that the plating underneath the Mech was loose.

"Maybe," replied Mega Man, "but how about this!" Mega Man dodged another blast from the Mech, slid under the Mech and fired a shot into the Mech's weaker underside.

As Mega Man slid out the other side, an explosion underneath the Mech sent it flying into the main computer for the lab. Naturally with anything like this, it was only a matter of time before the lab was reduced to rubble.

"I'll get you next time Mega Man!" Said the frustrated Wilie as he slammed the escape button, the usual refrain meant nothing really to Mega Man though.

However, there would be no next time.

"WORK YOU STUPID THING!!" came the frantic cry of the evil doctor as he pounded on the button. 

Even the insane, however, eventually realize when escape is futile.

"Well," said Wilie, "you may have beaten me, but my legacy isn't over yet!!!!" Then everything went white.

There was no doubt about it. There it was in the rubble, Wilie's body.

"Rush," said Mega Man in a flat voice, as he leaned over to pick up the body, "jet mode. Let's tell Dr. Light it's over."

* * *

"X, would you stop daydreaming?" 

Zero's sudden query caused X to jump slightly, his reminiscing brought to a sudden stop.

"Look X, I know it's hot in here, but we gotta' stay focused." Zero returned to his keyboard.

It was only months after Sigma's second fall, and as there had been no new Maverick threats, the bureaucrats and politicians had done what had come natural to them: they cut the budget, thus relegating most of the Maverick Hunters to the ranks of mere paper-pushers.

X shook his head, trying to wake himself up, "Sorry."

There was a glitch in the heating system, resulting in half of Hunter H.Q. existing in a balmy-yet-wonderful state of 200 degrees. Some kid named Lan was supposed to come and fix the problem, however, he was late, as usual.

The computer Zero was working at made a few strange noises and then locked up.

"What the…!?" shouted Zero. Grumbling he activated the reset sequence for easily the twentieth time that day, the heat obviously having an adverse effect on the computer's ability to function. As he was waiting for it to boot up again he ranted, "We save the world, what, twice and what's our thanks? GETTING F#%@ PAPERWORK IN A %^$# SONNA FOR A CUBICAL WHERE EVERYTHING DOESN'T #&!@ WORK!" said the _slightly _ticked off Zero.

Zero had been cursing all day. Being sick of it X had rigged up a crude button-activated censoring device that would replace Zero's cursing with beeps. Caught off guard X had barely reached the button in time.

"OW!" said Zero, who had just received a jolt of pain, a side-effect of the device. "It hurts when you push that thing… and didn't you say that you were going to get rid of it?"

"Well… I… um… forgot…" X admitted, without looking up, quickly putting the device down and attempting to look busy.

"OH! So _that's_ the game is it?!" Said Zero mockingly "X can do whatever he wants and Zero's just a piece of scrap metal!"

Dr. Cain Walked in, wearing a heat suit, however the duo weren't paying attention.

"I never said that…"  


"But you _implied _it!" roared Zero, then mockingly imitating X's voice said: "Lookie me! I'm X and I've saved the world two times and I can do any thing I want because I saved the.. OOF!"

X, uncharacteristically had just left his cubical and punched Zero, sending him sprawling into the isle—the heat was obviously getting to X too.

Zero got up, "OH, so you want to fight, now, do ya?" his retaliatory punch sent X face-first into the isle. X got up again.

It was just seconds from a fight, when fortuitously for the surrounding four city blocks, Dr. Cain intervened.

Dr. Cain audibly cleared his throat, "AHEM!"

Both snapped to attention, "Sir!"

Dr. Cain simply shook his head, "I'll pretend I didn't see that. Head quarter command has decided to shut down the building until the problem's fixed."

"WOHOO!" Went Zero.

"YES!" Went X.

Both of them flew out of the building faster than one of X's fully powered shots on a caffeine high. 

* * *

In a stark contrast to the Hunter Headquarters Building, the temperature outside was a quite comfortable 24 degrees. Not only that, it was quite clear out, the sky never looked quite so blue, the sky only broken slightly by the occasionally white feathery cloud.

Since it was so nice out, X and Zero both decided to head to the park to relax, maybe even play a game of soccer or two. After arranging the time and place for the match, the duo attempted to find somewhere to relax before the game was underway.

The place the duo decided to rest a bit was by a lake, encircled by bushes, flower beds, trees, and other assorted foliage. 

"Hey, Zero, how much longer till the other guys arrive?"

"Fifteen minutes."

X was sitting under a tree, with his back propped against it, as Zero was looking for flat stones with witch to skip over the lake. Finding one, he wound up and threw it.

Pap! Pap-pap! Pap! Plonk!

"Four," said Zero. He fired another.

Pap! Pap-pap! Pap! Pap-pap-pap! Pap! Pap! Pap!

It was looking good, and still going strong it seemed.

"Wow!" said X, "Four more and it'll break your record!"

Pap-Pap!

"Come on!" said Zero, fists clenched in excitement.

Pap!

"One more!" said both.

The rock then shifted in the air and hit the water edge-first. Not a very healthy environment for propagating skips.

Plunk! The water rippled, almost tauntingly.

"ARGH!"

"Thirteen," said X, as he resettled himself against the tree, "at least you tied it."

"Yea," said Zero, "easy for… XLOOKOUT!"

The blast came from seemingly nowhere, straight at X's head. He had just enough time to shift it out of the way. There was now a hole in the tree where X's head was.

X, with his head shifted slightly to the left, rolled forward and in a crouching position on one knee took three quick shots into the bushes from where the blast had likely come.

Silence. X stood, buster ready, Zero completely still.

Another blast emanated from the bushes behind Zero. He dodged it in a single move, pulling out his beam sword meanwhile doing a spinning backflip. He dashed into the bushes and disappeared.

X ran over to the place Zero had dashed into, and could see flashes of light coming from within. As he was about to run in to help out, Zero came flying back into X.

"Ugh" grunted X, as they both went tumbling.

The aggressor stepped out of the bushes. A wolf-like reploid, he had a strange color scheme, mostly red with lighter red. His weapon was a plasma gun inside his mouth, along with intimidating looking claws and teeth, and high speed. One other noticeable feature was that his speech was strange. By this time, both X and Zero had returned to their feet.

"Row Roo RIE!" it growled.

It made the mistake of lunging at X, who had a powered up X-Buster shot ready. He dropped to the ground on his back, and unleashed the blast. It sent the offending reploid into the air, as it came back down, Zero's sword was ready.

* * *

Suddenly Dr. Cain came over X's communications device.  


"X? X? Are you there X?

"Yes, what is it?"

Dr. Cain noticed X was breathing hard. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," chimed in Zero, "just took some dog to the pound."

"Right," replied Dr. Cain. "Anyway, X, we just received something at the Dr. Light Memorial Lab you might want to see.

"Guess we'll have to cancel that soccer game," said X to Zero. "Roger, Dr. Cain, be right over."

"Hey, can I come?" asked Zero.

"Sure, I guess," X knew Zero would follow him anyway, so X figured he might as well not bother.

* * *

Arriving at the lab, Dr. Cain met Zero and X..

"Hey, what's the deal with interrupting our break?" joked Zero. "Another budget cut meeting?"

"No." Said Dr. Cain, "This pertains mostly to X, however, as one of his closest friends you may join if you wish, come."

Dr. Light's Lab was refurbished with all the newest technology, and had a touring group head through it once at least every half hour, thus it was the least affected building by the budget cuts.

As they were walking through the corridors of the lab, Zero noticed X was looking awfully down. Realizing whatever was on his mind may not be something X would want to share with the world, he walked closer and asked in a hushed tone:

"X, what's the matter?"

"Wha--? Oh, nothing."

"Come on," said Zero, "You know I know you know I know you better than that, really, what's wrong?" asked Zero, attempting to be funny and make X loosen up a little.

X, however, was saved from having to share when a rookie scientist caused a small explosion. In a quavering voice, with a face covered in soot, he said, "I'm OK…"

* * *

Arriving at their destination, Dr. Cain procured a small disc.

"Holie cow! Is that what I think it is?" Exclaimed Zero.

"Yes," said Dr. Cain, "It's a RDS 3100 vid-disk. Luckily I, in my stash had a player for such a thing." It was already prepared, so all he did was slide it in, push a button and off it went.

The seen was having a problem displaying the video portion, but the audio worked just fine.. a little too fine.

"Hey, brother, long time no see," came a familiar voice.

A look of pure shock went through X's face.

* * * * * *

X has had quite a day today. Who is this voice? What does he want? Why is Zero looking for where all of X's blue has gone? Is it possible to spell onomatopoeia without looking it up? Most of these questions answered in the next chapter!

Please read and review. I'm kinda proud of this, it took me a while to finally write it, but here it is, my first fanfic. Flamers are accepted, only if they post **constructive** criticism. 1 Gold Star to the first to put in their review the names of the two Mega Man games I have referenced and not be a flamer.


	2. Challenge From the Deepest Blue

__

Disclaimer that won't prevent them from doing something legal-like against me:

See previous chapter for details

Hi again everyone. Sorry about the obscenely large hiatus between the first chapter and this one. Several things impeded my progression to finishing the story.

All right, as of now the only info I'm missing from the Megaman/Megaman X series is MMX3 and Mega Man 7. 

Anyway, not too many notes this time

1) A clarification. When I referred to " the TV show by the same name" I was referring to the Mega Man TV show, not Mega Man X. If you know what channel, and when a MMX TV show is on please tell me, I wanna see! Or maybe tell me where I can find videotapes/DVD's of said series

2) If there was/is/will be such a thing RDS 3100 vid-disk, the one I used was totally made up.

3) Mega Man characters introduced in MegaManX5 and 6 have always been there

OK, on to the much delayed chapter 2!

A Family Reunited

Chapter II: Challenge from the Deepest Blue

Whack! Whack!! …WHAM! Dr. Cain had just hit the RDS 3100 player three times. 

After momentary flicker, the mysterious voice finally had a face.

"I just love percussive maintenance" said Dr. Cain, rubbing his hand.

The most noticeable feature on the reploid was the black visor. It was attached to a red helmet, with three white spikes, two tracing the top of the visor and stretching back slightly, and one going straight up the middle of the helmet. Wrapped around his neck was the second biggest distinguishing feature, his yellow scarf. This brightly colored scarf created an interesting contrast between it and his predominately gray body. His buster and his hands were a similar style as X's, except they were red.

He continued, "Yes, it has been quite some time since we've last met, brother." He held his chin in the gap between his thumb and forefinger, I believe they call you Mega Man X, now, am I right? If not you can correct me later." He shook his head, "By now, you must have met a reploid, of my own design of course, inspired by a certain canine pal of yours." He nodded his head toward the recording device, as if he was making a winking motion. 

"Rush…" X trailed off, his voice sounded very far away.

"Rush?" asked Zero, but X was not paying attention

"Anyway, I was hoping to throw a little reunion, brother, and figured this would be the best way to get your attention. If you wish to come, and I know you do. I challenge you to join me in the deepest blue." He 'winked' again. "This should be no problem for you to figure out where I am." Smirking, he put his right hand akimbo and gave a salute by taping the first two fingers of his left hand to his helmet, then moving them away in a waving fashion. "Seeya later, bro!"

The screen went blank and the RDS 3100 player powered down. Zero took a glance over at X and noticed X was looking rather pale, even X's normally deep blue armor appeared to have become a few tints lighter.

"X, what's wrong?"

X gave no response. His gaze was fixed at the point where the mysterious figure's image had been.

"X…? X… you there?"

"Oh, crap… this could get ugly..." quietly blurted out Dr. Cain. He slammed the emergency intercom button, "Lifesavor, hurry in here, the disc seems to have had some adverse affects on X! His life might be in danger!"

"Pro…to…" X swayed forward and back a couple of times, then passed out, falling back, hitting the floor of the lab very hard.

"Hurry!" continued Dr. Cain. "He's just passed out!"

"X!" shouted Zero, he ran to X's side, and knelt down by him. "Stay with me! Hold on, everything's going to be OK. Just hang in there!"

"Bro… ther……"

***

"Looks like he's coming around" X could hear Lifesavor say, although it sounded very distorted.

X's head was pounding, he put a hand to it, he winced. "Ugh… anyone get the number of that truck…?"

Everyone in the medical ward breathed a big sigh of relief. X had been out cold since about noon that day. After all the fighting X has been through, losing him to something that seemed so trivial would have been ironic. 

Zero, unable to stand the gloomy atmosphere any longer, "You know, X. You should see the dent in the floor you made. I think Sigma's going to be your least of your problems when the janitors find out about it."

The company allowed themselves a chuckle, now that the worst had passed, it was time to return to business.

"Do you remember anything that happened?" inquired Dr. Cain.

X sat up in his medical bed, looking straight ahead, trying to recall. "I think so," replied X, "there was this gray reploid with a red helmet and a yellow scarf…"

Dr. Cain nodded, "Go on."

"He said something about a challenge to meet him in the deepest blue…" X frowned slightly and turned to Dr. Cain, "that's about it."

"X," said Zero, eyes semi-shut, with a look of slight ponderance on his face, "you mentioned something about a Rush, and a Proto-something…" he looked directly at X, "that's about the point you passed out… do any of these names ring a bell?"

"Thanks, Zero" cut in Dr. Cain, "I was about to ask the same thing. That figure directly addressed you as 'Brother' and 'X'."

"No, no they don't—I don't even remember saying them."

Zero passed a glance at Dr. Cain, then at Lifesavor. They both shrugged.

"Still, the origin of the package is unknown…" said Dr. Cain.

X suddenly had a brainstorm, "…you don't think he's referring to the Marianas Trench, do you?"

"Sounds like a possibility," mused Dr. Cain. "I'll get Alia to confirm the origin of the package, it's not like we're doing anything _important_ around here anyway."

"Well," yawned Dr. Cain. "It's almost two in the morning, and I'm off to bed. I'm bad enough without eight hours, but I need at least four or else I'm completely worthless to everybody." He staggered off, he waved as he walked out of sick bay. "Night everyone, X, I'll give you the full briefing at 6:20—and someone had better have my coffee ready."

A couple chuckles came from the remaining company. Lifesavor dismissed Zero with a nod. After Zero left, Lifesavor looked at X, "I'm going to keep you the rest of the time for surveillance, you know, standard procedure. After your briefing, I would like to give you one last check-up." He noticed a slight look of concern on X's face, "Don't worry," he assured X, "I'll wake you up in plenty of time." He dimmed the lights, and went on to attend other patients.

X allowed himself to drift off to sleep. He knew it was going to be an even longer day than yesterday and he was going to need every minute of rest he could get.

***

"Hey, Mega! Come on! Please come out!" begged Roll for the fifth time that day.

Rush scratched at the door and whined.

No response emanated from the other room.

It was a little over two weeks since Willie's demise. Because he had been a former colleague of Dr. Light, he insisted on giving Dr. Willie a proper burial. During the service, instead of bringing some kind of closure, Mega Man's already despondent state became worse. Immediately after returning to the lab after the funeral, he went straight to his room and closed the door. He sat on the edge of his bed and had not moved or talked since.

Dr. Light turned the corner and saw the two trying in vain to coax Mega Man out of his room. He shook his head and smiled slightly, "I know your intentions are good, however, it's not going to help." He looked at the door gravely, "he has some issues to work out," he looked back at Roll, "Unfortunately, this is something that he has to do on his own."

Roll looked down at her feet, "But I feel so helpless out here while Mega's in there and could… could…" she could not continue. She looked into Dr. Light's eyes, "… and there's nothing I can do!" She was on the verge of tears.

"There, there now…" he embraced her, Roll buried her face into his shoulder, shaking uncontrollably. Dr. Light patted her on the back, trying to console her, "I feel the same way too."

The thunk of a helmet hitting the floor was heard coming from the other side of the door.

"I hope he sorts it out soon." She said into his shoulder.

"I do too," said Dr. Light, turning to look at the door again "I do too…"

Rush looked at the door and whined again.

***

"X…! XWAKEUP!"

X's eyes snapped open. His optic sensors were still warming up, but though the blurry vision he could make out the form of Lifesavor yelling something at him.

"X, I'm sorry. There was a glitch in the clock systems at about 3:15."

While the Dr. Light Memorial lab may have in fact been the least affected Maverick Hunter building by the aforementioned budget cuts, that was not to say that _nothing_ ever went wrong because of them. The lab, after all, _had_ been hastily been turned into a Hunter Headquarters, and there were still some, _minor_, bugs to work out.

"Everyone knows that Lan can't be drug out of bed until at least 8:00. Luckily, I had a fuel-cell powered clock for such an emergency."

X really, _really_ did not want to hear what time it actually was, unfortunately he did not have the choice in the matter.

"It's 6:15 now! Hurry, the briefing room's on the other side of the lab!" He handed X a slip of paper. "This is where the room is, GO!"

Lifesavor could have sworn he heard a sonic boom.

***

"Pardon me." "Coming though." "WATCHOUT!" 

X was flipping in his mind though all the potential ways through the lab, attempting to shave any second he could, meanwhile dodging lab technicians, service reploids, other Maverick Hunters and other assorted obstacles in his path.

"Great!" muttered X under his breath, "I probably look like some rookie hunter who's late for his first assignment… woah! WATCHIT!"

***

His current route made him pass through one of the scattered lobbies of the lab. At the same time Zero was attempting to impress some female reploids in that same lobby.

"… and then he said, 'What do I look like, a duck?'" Zero noticed a blue blur out of the corner of his eye. He knew it could be only one thing. "If you'll excuse me, ladies, some pressing matters have just sprung up." With that he excused himself from the female reploids. After making sure they were not looking, he took off after X.

Zero could not help thinking that X should try out for the Reploid Olympics with the speed he was dashing through the corridors, dodging obstacles all the while. A short distance from where X was Zero could see some worker reploids moving a large metal object that filled the entire hallway, however left a small gap at the bottom, just big enough for X to possibly crawl through.

"Finally, I'll be able to catch up to him." Zero smirked. His confidence quickly vanished as with a small grunt, X slid underneath the apparent wall. "Wow… I wonder where he picked that one up…"

***

"I'm two minutes late… I'm done for… what am I gonna' do?" 

He and Zero had had the misfortune of witnessing another hunter arrive one minute late to a mission briefing by Dr. Cain when he was short of sleep. Needless to say, it was something that no one should ever have to experience, much less witness.

X spotted the door, unfortunately, despite his liberal application of the brakes, he slid well past the open door. Finally able to change his trajectory he dashed inside. He was about to blurt an apology when Dr. Cain strolled in, sipping his coffee; very black, by the smell of it.

"Hmm. Seems I'm two minutes late. Hope you'll forgive me."

X nearly passed out again.

He closed the door. "Anyway, Allia has confirmed that the package originated near the Phillipenes, so you're guess of the Marianas Trench is probably right on. This isn't a mission _per se_, so you'll have to take out of your vacation time. However, if you can prove that this _is_ in fact a Maveric threat, maybe we can get some M-O-N-E-Y so we can resume operations like normal and send any help required" Still looking at X Dr. Cain said, "No, Zero, you can't go. Just come in, no sense sticking near the door. Make sure you close it once you're in." 

Zero walked in with an astonished look on his face.

Preempting Zero's question, "You're a little predictable sometimes," said Dr. Cain, continuing to look exclusively at X. Finally turning to Zero, "We can't start sending out all of our best hunters at once. We need you here in case a 'real' Maverick threat should occur."

Zero had a dejected look on his face, he hunched a little, head hung down. "Aww… awright."

"Alright, " continued Dr. Cain. "Lucky for you, Douglass was sent there on assignment, so I messaged ahead, and he told me he has 'something special' in mind for you to use. Chances are, it's something he's been tinkering with, so I'd get there as fast as possible if I were you, before he changes his mind..."

"Roger!" X saluted and teleported off.

*****

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Freaking finally! It's done. To be honest, I was beginning to think I wasn't going to finish it anything nearly as good as this. Note: this is not to say it's good, it's just I was thinking it was going to wind up worse. Kudos to D-Scythe for coming up with the duck joke punchline—yes, I do still remember that from back in middle school, and I figured here was as good as any to put it in. By the way, that gold star from the previous chapter is still up for grabs! Anyhoo… X is off, Zero is depressed, and at the rate I seem to be writing these chapters, it's going to be 20XX when I finish it. Hopefully a bunch of stuff will happen in the next chapter!


End file.
